Did you like/hate where you gave birth? AND win autographed copy of Dr. Sears book
At the last two talks I gave, “Best of Brooklyn” to new and expectant moms, I was asked multiple times where I would suggest giving birth. Many were curious about the Brooklyn Birthing Center. Some had had bad prior experiences at certain hospitals. Others were just curious about what I had heard.
I do hear a lot, but now I want to hear from you. The more voices the better to inform these women.
What was your experience?
So, here is the upshot. I want to hear from you what your birthing experience was like. How was the labor triage? The labor and delivery rooms? The nurses? The aftercare? The lactation consultant? The staff pediatricians? The rooms (shared or private)?
I just had a fantastic experience at New York Presbyterian Cornell- Weill but another friend of mine did not. My friend who gave birth at NYU checked out a day early because the horrific construction noise at 7 am and slow-to-respond nurses. My girlfriend gave birth at St. Lukes Roosevelt last week and said the aftercare was middling. What about you? Please help by either emailing me your experience or posting it in a comment below this post. I will publish them all with your permission. If you want me to use a pseudonym, please include that. I think this will help a lot of parents out there to make an informed decision!
How can you win?
I realize it takes time and a lot of thought to write your experience down. Happy Baby (the organic baby food company) is generously donating a SIGNED copy of “The Vaccine Book” by Dr. Sears to a winning submission. That winning submission will be randomly chosen from all of those that I get. I will take all the submissions through December 1st and announce the winner on December 2nd.
I will do a book review of “The Vaccine Book” that week. If you are thinking about buying his book, read my review on December 2nd so that you can make an informed decision. If you want to be sure you to find out if you won, or to make sure you read the upcoming review you can sign up for my daily email newsletter by just shooting me an email and you will get one back asking you to confirm your interest in getting the newsletter. That’s it. Easy!
Related Posts:
- New Guide from Home Births to Hospitals: Better Birth (June 15th, 2009)
- The Case Against Dr. Sears (April 13th, 2009)
- Book Winner and Birthing Results AND New Giveaway (December 3rd, 2008)
- Which birth control now? (April 29th, 2008)
- Birth Doc coming to Brooklyn for Screening (December 4th, 2007)
I am very happy I found your blog on yahoo. Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my boyfriend were just preparing to do some research about this. I am glad to see such great info being shared freely out there.
Regards,
Colins from Miami city
Thank you very much for your help, this has been a great reprieve from the books,
I had my daughter on January 9th, 2008 at Minden Medical Center in Minden, Louisiana.
My experience there was awful. I really wanted to be as natural as possible, and was given no support from the nurses. When I informed them I’d like to try without the epidural, I was told with a cold look and a superior voice that, “You cannot imagine how much pain you will be in. It hurts more than anything else that you have or will experience. It’s unimaginable.”
When I asked for a second gown for my back, I was denied. They said I wouldn’t need it because I was on the pit. It’s just so nice to drag around a heavy IV, hold your gown closed over your butt, and pray that your father-in-law, mother-in-law, parents, and random family members or friends don’t get flashed.
There was a different nurse trying to get her digits in my lady parts every time I blinked. Never the same twice. Did I mention the one that MUST have had claws? She was hit, but it really was an accident. My arm just reacted.
My doctor must have forgotten I was a first timer. He came at me with a crochet hook. Never warned me. Just flipped up my gown in front of yet another strange nurse and jabbed. It hurt so much. I had sharp pains there for several hours. I think a couple of his first jabbs missed the opening.
Being on the pit and forced to late prostrate after your bag of waters was attacked, there’s a baby on your bladder, and your hooked up to more water that fills up said bladder is the pits. Your doctor says you can have as much IV meds as you want, but the nurses act downright hateful towards you every time you can have more. All they did was chew me out. Every 4 hours, but they waited 5.
When you say you’re probably allergic to Demerol, you’d think they wouldn’t give you something related to it, right? Having double vision and repeatedly vomiting isn’t fun.
I was a nervous wreck after the first 15 hours or so of strange people with their digits and very unwelcoming behavior, and soon I couldn’t tollerate any pain. After finding out after 15 hours I was only 4 cm, I gave in and got the epidural. Promptly after getting it, yet another strange woman appeared to put a catheter in me while I was semi-unconscious….in front of my family.
Then the hospital stopped checking on me. I guess they figured it’d take longer. I felt like I was having a bm for over half an hour before they discovered she was crowning. I had asked my mom to make sure I wasn’t “pooping”. I did not, even in my semi-conscious state, enjoy my mother checking out my privates. (Remember, I’m a first timer. I didn’t know the feeling of needing to push.)
Everything was in motion very quickly after that. About 10-15 people I had never seen before, mostly MEN, poured into the room as my gown was flipped up, and my legs were hoisted in the air. There was a tv (turned off) across from me, and I could see my reflection. I got to see what all of those strange men were seeing.
Now, I hear most first timers take a while to push. That would explain why the doctor didn’t feel like he needed to show up right away. I was really good at pushing they told me. So after one, she was very much coming out, and I was told to not push for almost thirty minutes before he showed. He didn’t believe them, but she was pushed out less than thirty seconds after he arrived.
The epidural had worn off, but he redosed me when he entered. Still felt EVERY SINGLE stitch sewed into my taint. Then the meds kicked in.
At this hospital you labor, deliver, and recover in the same bed and room. After several stitches down there, the patented ER mattresses are very uncomfortable to say the least. They give you meds for it. But you get chewed out when you ask for them. I was forced to wait till I was in tears from the pain before I could have my dose. You can have a dose every 3 hours. They made me wait 7 between them. I really think better mattresses would have eased a lot of that pain.
They didn’t get that IV out till I threatened to take it out myself after two days. I had started to untape it for them.
The baby nurses were very rough. I got to see one fumble and nearly drop my baby while she was giving my daughter her first bath. It must have been cold, because she’s never made a peep when I’ve bathed her, and she was screaming her head off with the nurse.
I was in there a week almost. I was in constant pain from the mattress, the food was awful, and for some reason I had to be supervised when I washed my perineum.
When I was finally discharged, the doctor told me I could have a bath. A nurse a few minutes later said no baths for two weeks. They need to keep in touch more.
When I was leaving, a nurse(mother of 4 and one coming) helped my husband to put my newborn in the carseat…wrong. Perfect ending to this whole fiasco.
I am terrified of having another, but I want more so badly. I really don’t know if I’ll every be happy about expecting a baby again.
I gave birth to both kids at St. Lukes’ Roosevelt and was happy with both experiences. I had an emergency C-section & a VBAC. After care was very good and I the nursing staff was excellent.
Nonetheless I think having a baby at home is the best way to go……
I gave birth at the birthing center at Roosevelt Hospital and had a really great experience. It was calm and quiet, the nurses were amazing and I felt like I got a combination of a natural birth while also the reassurance of being in a hospital just in case anything was needed. The birthing rooms look a bit like a room at a Holiday Inn with all medical equipment hidden in corners. I spent most of the time laboring in the tub (though you can’t give birth in the tub) with just my husband in the room while our midwife and the attending nurse would pop in every once in a while to check on us. After I gave birth, we stayed another 12 hours or so and then went home which surprised the older generation but I was glad to get home!
I gave birth to my daughter Giada in my home in 1999. My 3 year old son attended the birth as well as my husband and two best friends. It happened very quickly and my midwife didn’t make it in time! It was a glorious moment when she came out. I was standing on the bed, with my arms around my husband and my son wrapped around his leg. The two friends, who happened to be midwives in training, caught her. It was their first birth without another supervising midwife. It happened on a sunny June morning in Maine and may have been the happiest day of my life. I intend to have another child and wouldn’t consider any place but home with a midwife and my family around me.
My experience at New York Methodist in winter 2007 was extremely negative!
There were many kind and competent individuals who helped me throughout my labor, c-section and recovery; however, the nursing staff was obviously understaffed and over-burdened. I was made to feel needy just asking for basic needs like pain medication, a bit of water, a bed pan so I could vomit! (It was my roomate who selflessly rushed to my side with a dish from the dinner tray so that I wouldn’t do it on my son! Then, a nurse on staff barked at me “You shouldn’t bother your roomate.”) I felt a lot of impatience from the nurses, even though I am one of the politest, kindest, non-confrontational types out there!
The atmosphere was awful, too. One morning I woke up to the sounds of construction (loud hammering) outside my door. I could see a filthy cart with rags and tools and paint cans on it.
There were multiple administrative screw ups during my stay which always held up the next step. I didn’t realize that so many different doctors and nurses and med students would be checking on me. It was a stranger every time. They were so brief and impersonal, and in my groggy state, I never had a chance mention a question or concern…
Scary, but I think these are all common complaints of hospitals.
I hope that my experience at NYM was an exception and not the norm. If you are planning to deliver there for your first baby, I suggest hiring a doula or midwife to advocate for you, so you will not feel so alone and unhelped, even especially after the birth when nurses are too frazzled to help you change your baby’s diaper for the first time (not easy after C-sec). Bring EVERYTHING especially if you may stay 4 days! Your own towels, your own pillow, your own night gowns, flip flops, food, bottled water, everything and anything to make you feel more comfortable.
All that said, the time surrounding the birth of my son was the happiest and most wondrous time of my life. We both came home perfectly healthy and I could not have asked for anything more.